A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the use of light sources to cure polymeric materials, particularly those used in dentistry, and through that curing to tailor the post-cure properties of the materials in order to achieve desired physical properties in the materials. The invention includes various modulation schemes for causing polymeric materials to cure in a desired manner.
B. The Background Art
In the prior art, curing dental materials by the use of light was known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,991, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a dental composition that can be polymerized by the use of two curing steps using light of different wavelengths during the two steps. U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,834, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses photoinitiated control of inorganic network formations in the sol-gel process. U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,936, which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses photocuring of mixtures which could be used in dentistry or medicine. Other patents to which the reader may wish to refer to understand the background against which the invention was made are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,191,622, 4,224,525, 4,273,335, 4,298,005, 5,002,854, 5,002,855, 5,154,861, and 5,175,077, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.